Nation's Top Chefs Compete in 'Culinary Olympics' in Germany

ACF Chefs from Across the Nation Defend Title and Face Off Against Global Competitors

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- As U.S. Olympic athletes are training and preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, another team is honing its skills and preparing for a culinary competition of international proportions. American Culinary Federation (ACF) Culinary National Team USA will travel to Erfurt, Germany, to represent America against teams from more than 40 nations in the Internationale Kochkunst Ausstellung (IKA) International Culinary Art Competition, more commonly known as the "culinary Olympics," October 19-22.

ACF Culinary National Team USA, which boasts three certified master chefs (CMC), of which there are only 61 in the country, is a top contender on the world culinary stage. These six chefs are prepared to represent American cuisine and take home the gold. Chefs dedicate years of practice and training to the competition that takes place every four years. The team currently meets in New York City every three weeks perfecting and developing their recipes in preparation for the competition.

  ACF Culinary National Team USA members

  -- Edward Leonard, CMC, American Academy of Chefs (AAC), ACF Culinary Team
     USA manager and executive chef, Westchester Country Club, Rye, N.Y.
  -- Richard Rosendale, certified executive chef (CEC), ACF Culinary
     National Team USA captain and executive chef/owner, Rosendales,
     Columbus, Ohio
  -- Joachim Buchner, CMC, executive chef, Chevy Chase Club, Chevy Chase,
     Md.
  -- Jamie Keating, certified chef de cuisine (CCC), chef/owner, Gourmet
     Events and the RiverMill Event Center, Columbus, Ga.
  -- Melissa K. Root, pastry chef, Payard Patisserie & Bistro, Las Vegas
  -- Daniel Scannell, CMC, executive chef, Carnegie Abbey Club, Portsmouth,
     R.I.

The team's history at IKA is long and distinguished. When Americans began competing as an official team in 1956, they were clearly the underdogs. However, American cookery soon established itself as world-class cuisine. The 1960 team captured the first world championship honor for the United States, and ACF Culinary Team USA repeated the distinction in 1980, 1984 and 1988 by taking the prestigious hot-food competition all three times and establishing a new world record for the most consecutive gold-medal wins. The team's most recent IKA win came in 2004, when the team took home the gold medal in hot- food cooking, reestablishing ACF Culinary National Team USA as the leader in international cooking.

About ACF Culinary Team USA

ACF Culinary Team USA is the official representative team of the United States in major national and international culinary competitions. It comprises one national team of six members, two regional teams with five members each, and a youth team of five members less than 23 years old. Sponsors of ACF Culinary Team USA are Kraft Foodservice, Tyson Food Service, Uncle Ben's, Unilever, Club Managers Association of America, KitchenAid, Chef Revival, Fortessa, Friedr. Dick, Westchester Country Club and Blodgett. Visit http://www.acfchefs.org/ to learn more about the team.

About the American Culinary Federation

The American Culinary Federation, Inc., established in 1929, is the premier professional organization for culinarians in North America. With more than 21,500 members spanning 230 chapters nationwide, ACF is the culinary leader in offering educational resources, training, apprenticeship and accreditation. In addition, ACF operates the most comprehensive certification program for chefs in the United States. ACF is home to ACF Culinary Team USA, the official representative for the United States in major international culinary competitions. For more information, visit http://www.acfchefs.org/.

CONTACT: Annie Vian, Publicist for Team Captain, Chef Richard Rosendale, +1-614-766-4455, avian@columbus.rr.com

Web site: http://www.acfchefs.org/

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